carrying fire and
sword into the fair fields and rich towns of the Spanish Moors; for he
had vowed to punish Marsilius, king of Spain, for the injuries he had
done the French in former years. He had overrun the whole of that
haughty land, and had left neither castle, nor city, nor wall,
unbroken, save only the town of Saragossa.

One day Charlemagne sat beneath the blossoming trees of an orchard near
Cordova. White was his beard, and flowered was his head; yet still
handsome was his body, and proud his form. Around him were the noblest
of knights, Roland and Oliver and old Duke Namon, and fifteen thousand
of the choicest men of France. It was a gala-day for the French, and
the warriors amused themselves with field sports, and many pleasant
games. Then a party of Moorish messengers were brought before the
king. They came from Marsilius at Saragossa, who had sent to beg peace
of Charlemagne.

"What will Marsilius give for peace?" asked the king.

"If you will go back to your own country, and cease this unhappy war,"
answered they, "then Marsilius binds himself to do this: he will go to
Aix at Michaelmas, and be baptized; he will do homage then for Spain,
and will faithfully hold it in fief from you; he will give you great
store of treasures,--four hundred mules loaded with gold, and fifty
cart-loads of silver, besides numbers of bears and lions and tame
greyhounds, and seven hundred camels, and a thousand moulted falcons.
Too long has this cruel war been waging. Marsilius would fain have
peace."

Charlemagne listened to the words of the messengers, but he was not
quick to answer. He called together his peers, and laid the matter
before them.

"What think you of the Moor's offers of peace?" asked he.

"Put no trust in Marsilius!" cried Roland. "He is the most faithless
of Pagans, and speaks only lies. Carry on the war as you have begun,
and talk not of peace until Saragossa is ours."

Charlemagne's face grew dark, yet he said not a word. It was plain
that he coveted the treasures which Marsilius had promised. Then
Ganelon arose, and with curling lip, thus answered,--

"If Marsilius offers to do fealty for Spain, and to hold it as a gift
from you, wherefore should we refuse his plea? He who would advise you
otherwise cares not what manner of death we die."

And Namon of Bavaria added, "If the Moor is beaten, and cries for
mercy, it would be an unknightly act to continue warring against him.
My voice